The present invention relates, in general, to magnetoresistive materials, and more particularly, to a novel memory using magnetoresistive materials.
In the past, a variety of magnetoresistive materials have been utilized to form non-volatile memories. Typically, such memories utilize an anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR) or giant magnetoresistive (GMR) multilayer magnetic element as a basic memory cell element. The basic memory cell element is covered with a dielectric, and a word conductor or word line crosses the dielectric at right angles to the basic memory cell element. One problem with the prior memory is power dissipation. In order to produce a magnetic field that was sufficient to read or write the memory, a large current is required which results in high power dissipation (typically greater than 50 milliwatts/bit).
Because of the large magnetic fields (typically greater than approximately 50 oersteds) created from the large current, it is necessary to have a large distance (typically greater than the length of the memory cell) between each memory cell in order to prevent the large magnetic field from affecting nearby memory cells.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a magnetic memory that has low power dissipation (less than 50 milliwatts/bit), that does not affect nearby memory cells when reading or writing a particular memory cell, and that does not require a large distance between memory cells.